THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 060 



waters immediately over the crater were violently agitated 

 and tossed about, as if rushing over high cliffs, or raised 

 to the boiling-point by the subterraneous fires. Some 

 vessels sailing near the spot were struck by the falling 

 lava masses, without, however, suffering much damage. 

 This eruption was preceded by a violent earthquake. 

 Another great volcanic eruption took place in 1881. 

 Craters large and small, thermal springs, and other 

 evidences of volcanic acti\T.ty are common throughout 

 the islands. Among them the most striking is, perhaps, 

 the great crater on Maui Island, Haleakala, wliich is 

 stated to be 15 miles in circumference and about 2000 

 feet deep. Notwithstanding these potentialities, for 

 disaster, the Hawaiian group may be regarded as one 

 of the most pleasant places of abode in the Pacific, 

 rejoicing in a most healthful climate, a rich vegetation, 

 and a merry, light-hearted race of natives. The mean 

 coast temperature is about 74° Fahr., and the rainfall at 

 Honolulu below 40 inches. For these and other reasons 

 the group has become a sanatorium for Americans, com- 

 munication with San Francisco being now frequent and 

 regular. The only severe endemic disorder is leprosy, 

 which is said not to have existed in former years, though 

 now rather common. The sufferers are segregated in the 

 island of Molokai, and the memory of Father Damien's 

 life and death among them will long remain as a con- 

 spicuous instance of heroic self-sacrifice. 



Of all the islands of the Pacific, the Sandwich grouj) 

 are, so far as their fauna is concerned, the most interesting. 

 In most cases, in Polynesia and Mikronesia, the birds and 

 mammals are few in number, and apparently the descend- 

 ants of stragglers from the west, which, in the course of 

 centuries, have chanced upon these remote and lonely 

 islets. In Hawaii, though the size of the islands is such 



